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Splashtop is NOT in the BIOS, it is on hd or internal (with my script also external) usb drive. Only a small part of it can be in the BIOS to show the menu selection early. Basically it is a fake menu, it is not much more than a graphical boot menu, nothing else has been loaded at this time.

Why do hardware vendors code closed-source drivers? Because that's the status quo. Drivers have been closed-source for decades and breaking away from that tradition requires effort that's a hard sell to investors. Patent / IP pitfalls, NDAs, DRM, plus a WHQL validation process that generally frowns upon code that can be modified by anyone. (If you are a hardware vendor, you *really* want your drivers to have the WHQL mark).

Moreover, it come us a surprise to many in the open-source community that most managers are actively hostile to open-source. Traditional management will attempt to hoard every single item that might provide a competitive advantage in the market, as small as that might be. Nvidia is a prime example of such management - to them, releasing source code would be akin to suicide, their market advantage (drivers) would evaporate (that's how they think, at least.)

A non driver-related example, that illustrates this mentality: my last boss was a software-engineer with some excellent management skills and an uncanny knack for reading the market and squeezing money out of it. In short, he was talented.

Even so, he simply couldn't grasp what open-source development is and why someone would wish to engage in it. This came up during my interview and he was stunned that I would release half-a-million lines of code to the world just like that - I mean, what kind of suicidal business model is that? Your competitors can just take your code and sell it!

The only answer he would accept was that I was trying to unseat entrenched competitors and provide a "professional", paid version later on. No way I was doing that for the experience and the pleasure of building a community!

Why do hardware vendors code closed-source drivers? Because that's the status quo. Drivers have been closed-source for decades and breaking away from that tradition requires effort that's a hard sell to investors. Patent / IP pitfalls, NDAs, DRM, plus a WHQL validation process that generally frowns upon code that can be modified by anyone. (If you are a hardware vendor, you *really* want your drivers to have the WHQL mark).

Moreover, it come us a surprise to many in the open-source community that most managers are actively hostile to open-source. Traditional management will attempt to hoard every single item that might provide a competitive advantage in the market, as small as that might be. Nvidia is a prime example of such management - to them, releasing source code would be akin to suicide, their market advantage (drivers) would evaporate (that's how they think, at least.)

A non driver-related example, that illustrates this mentality: my last boss was a software-engineer with some excellent management skills and an uncanny knack for reading the market and squeezing money out of it. In short, he was talented.

Even so, he simply couldn't grasp what open-source development is and why someone would wish to engage in it. This came up during my interview and he was stunned that I would release half-a-million lines of code to the world just like that - I mean, what kind of suicidal business model is that? Your competitors can just take your code and sell it!

The only answer he would accept was that I was trying to unseat entrenched competitors and provide a "professional", paid version later on. No way I was doing that for the experience and the pleasure of building a community!

Strange world...

i do have a point!...

somethimes money is not all i think promotion and Public relationship is much much much much much more than earning a lithle more money..

amd in the past spend in the past million off dollars in Ads and TV spots and such a bullshit of PR and amd allways lose against intel in PR only because intel spend more money on Ad's...

in my Point of view the opensource grafic driver is the best PR-storry ever!

the same positive resonance with traditional Ad's will cost you much more than the opensource driver costs!

nvidia for exampel do have just the wrong view on opensource drivers!

if nvidia chance this view and makes PR like amd by supporting the opensource foodball team nvidia will become such a good PR for less money.

amd work on opensource drivers over 3 years now and we get basic-old-3D and basic-2D- witout viedeo acceleration......

thats not so big but the PR is impressiv!...

i buy amd cpus amd chipsetzs i have a amd cpu based router i buy amd grafic cards..